P235-M EU grant to probe RP extrajudicial killings

MANILA, Philippines—The European Union is providing a grant of 3.9 million euros (about P235 million) over a period of 18 months to assist the Philippines in bringing an end to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country.

Ambassador Alistair MacDonald, head of the European Commission Delegation to the Philippines, made the announcement during the launch of “Target EJK and Enforced Disappearances in the Philippines: A Consensus-Building, Media Reporting and Risk Reduction Project” by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Quezon City on Oct. 19.

MacDonald said the grant would help investigate and report evidence, patterns, challenges and opportunities for change in tackling extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances of activists, journalists, trade unionists and farmers’ representatives. It would also seek to identify the perpetrators and bring them to justice.

He said the scourge of killings and disappearances has tarnished the international image of the country.

The grant under the EU-Philippine Justice Support Program (EPJUST) was agreed upon in 2006 after the Philippine government, through then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, requested technical assistance from the EU to help the Philippines address the problem.

On November 2009, the EU brought in two key experts on this issue in preparation for the program’s full implementation in January this year.

“I have often underlined that it is only the Philippines that can resolve this problem—outsiders can help but cannot themselves provide a solution—and it is only when all stakeholders can talk together and work together, that we can have any possibility of succeeding in this,” MacDonald said.

He said the EU had insisted on having all stakeholders participate in the program—the government through the criminal justice system and through human rights training for the uniformed services and the Commission on Human Rights, and civil society such as the IWPR through the proposed National Monitoring Mechanism that they will design.

“It is entirely the responsibility of the State to protect the life and civil liberties of the citizens of that State, and if the State is unwilling to address these concerns then there is very little that anyone else can achieve,” MacDonald said.

The recently launched project is the IWPR’s third in the Philippines and its second focusing on human rights and impunity.

During the project launch, a panel discussion brought together human rights groups and families of those killed and those who disappeared, along with officials of the CHR and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Alan Davis, Target EJK director and IWPR head of Asia programming, said that despite a very high and increasing number of killings and involuntary disappearances, there was huge disagreement over actual numbers or even who can or should be deemed a victim.

Unfortunately, there is no commonly held view on these serious human rights issues, he said. “We cannot even agree on the scope of the problem—where it starts and where it ends. Without understanding it and agreeing on it, we cannot hope to move forward and fight it,” Davis said. –Cynthia Balana, Philippine Daily Inquirer